duker
Well-known member
My wife and I just got back from two weeks holiday in Mexico. We stayed in a little resort just outside of Tulum, about two hours south of Cancun at the south end of the Mayan Riveria. I managed to get in a bit of DIY fishing and a bit of guided fishing while we were there.
The quick and dirty:
Third morning there I got up just before the crack of dawn on the first calm day, grabbed my gear and headed to the public beach just up the road from our resort. I saw another guy fishing there, a young guy from Montreal fishing with a spinning rod and piece of shrimp for bait. He also had a fly rod but hadn't much luck with that. He'd been there down there a couple of other times and had some luck fishing off that beach. I was hoping for some bones but he said there were rarely there, only sometimes really early in the morning if the tide was right. I moved just down the beach from him and started fishing, just hucking casts out as far as I could and stripping back quickly. After a dozen or so casts I came up tight on something, not very big, that I couldn't see at first. It took me for a couple of quick runs, actually bent into my 9 weight, and when I finally got it in I saw that it was a small permit. I mean really small--2, maybe 3 lbs maximum. I was so friggin' flabbergasted when I saw it I just kinda watched it run around and finally blurted out "Holy sh*t! It's a little permit!", to which my new buddy from Montreal said "Right on, man!" I got the hook out and let it go and just kind of stood there for a while--my very first permit, and nothing more than 100% pure dumb ass luck. So it goes.
And. . .nothing else after that. I wandered down the beach a bit, trying some more casts, but couldn't scare up anything more. There was a huge amount of thick brown seaweed coming in, and piled up on the beach, and it made casting and retrieving a pain in the butt. I went out a couple of afternoons later in the trip, including another public beach, and just the sheer amount of seaweed basically made fishing impossible.
I also booked a day with Pesca Maya lodge, going for bonefish in Ascension Bay They use a two guide system, and it works well I think. A senior guide is paired with a more junior one, so you have an extra set of eyes and extra hands to deal with line control. Unlike the fishing I'd done in Belize and Turks and Caicos all of the casting was done from the panga, which I frankly needed some work on. Landed some bones, lost some more, and had a lot of laughs with the guides. Can't say enough good things about my two guides--genuinely decent fellows and great guides to boot.
The non-fishing parts of the trip were also fun. We explored Tulum, toured the Sian Ka'an Bioshpere, saw some ruins, ate some great food (and found some excellent local craft beers), and just generally had a great two weeks.
I'd read the earlier post warning about travelling to Mexico just before we left. I don't want to start any sort of geopolitical debate, but I will say that my wife and I had a totally safe and enjoyable trip. And I managed to squeeze in some fishing as well.
Scott
The quick and dirty:
Third morning there I got up just before the crack of dawn on the first calm day, grabbed my gear and headed to the public beach just up the road from our resort. I saw another guy fishing there, a young guy from Montreal fishing with a spinning rod and piece of shrimp for bait. He also had a fly rod but hadn't much luck with that. He'd been there down there a couple of other times and had some luck fishing off that beach. I was hoping for some bones but he said there were rarely there, only sometimes really early in the morning if the tide was right. I moved just down the beach from him and started fishing, just hucking casts out as far as I could and stripping back quickly. After a dozen or so casts I came up tight on something, not very big, that I couldn't see at first. It took me for a couple of quick runs, actually bent into my 9 weight, and when I finally got it in I saw that it was a small permit. I mean really small--2, maybe 3 lbs maximum. I was so friggin' flabbergasted when I saw it I just kinda watched it run around and finally blurted out "Holy sh*t! It's a little permit!", to which my new buddy from Montreal said "Right on, man!" I got the hook out and let it go and just kind of stood there for a while--my very first permit, and nothing more than 100% pure dumb ass luck. So it goes.
And. . .nothing else after that. I wandered down the beach a bit, trying some more casts, but couldn't scare up anything more. There was a huge amount of thick brown seaweed coming in, and piled up on the beach, and it made casting and retrieving a pain in the butt. I went out a couple of afternoons later in the trip, including another public beach, and just the sheer amount of seaweed basically made fishing impossible.
I also booked a day with Pesca Maya lodge, going for bonefish in Ascension Bay They use a two guide system, and it works well I think. A senior guide is paired with a more junior one, so you have an extra set of eyes and extra hands to deal with line control. Unlike the fishing I'd done in Belize and Turks and Caicos all of the casting was done from the panga, which I frankly needed some work on. Landed some bones, lost some more, and had a lot of laughs with the guides. Can't say enough good things about my two guides--genuinely decent fellows and great guides to boot.
The non-fishing parts of the trip were also fun. We explored Tulum, toured the Sian Ka'an Bioshpere, saw some ruins, ate some great food (and found some excellent local craft beers), and just generally had a great two weeks.
I'd read the earlier post warning about travelling to Mexico just before we left. I don't want to start any sort of geopolitical debate, but I will say that my wife and I had a totally safe and enjoyable trip. And I managed to squeeze in some fishing as well.
Scott
